Change to Calendar Budget Year Starts

The City Council took the first steps Tuesday to change back to a calendar tax year after a 20-year experiment with a July-to-June budget year.

The governing body approved spending $17 million for the first three months of a six-month “temporary year” and gave initial approval to a reversion ordinance that hinges on approval this month by the state Local Finance Board.

In other action, the council authorized the tax collector to send out estimated tax bills for the third quarter of 2011 at a rate of $4.14 per $100 of assessed valuation.

A couple of budget items were amended before approval of the three-month temporary budget. Expenses for the Recreation Division were split among designations for regular costs, seasonal employees and “summer pool program,” but the council agreed that the last category should be labeled seasonal as well. Councilman Adrian Mapp questioned another item, more than $63,300 for “prior year bills” that turned out to be disputed engineering fees over years dating back to 2003. After a discussion revealed that no litigation was currently involved, the council agreed to remove the amount from the temporary budget.

In other matters, Council President Annie McWilliams said liquor license hearings will be held at a special meeting to be announced for next week. The council had held up approvals for some licenses pending hearings on a high incidence of police responses to the premises in the 2010-11 license year.

McWilliams reminded the public that the agenda-fixing session for July will take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday in City Hall Library.

In public comment at the end of the meeting Tuesday, resident Olive Lynch described her proposal for a new food recycling operation and asked for council support as she seeks county and state approvals. McWilliams said rather than schedule a presentation at a regular council meeting, Lynch could appear before a council committee to outline her request. Lynch said if approved, the new operation could create a large number of entry-level jobs at a facility in a part of the city zoned for light industry.

--Bernice Paglia